TAC Awards 2025: tunnelling project lessons and innovation signals for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on Tunnels & Tunnelling International – News
30 Second Briefing
TAC’s 2025 awards at the Vancouver workshop named the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension Advance Tunnel Contract 1 as Canadian Project of the Year over C$300m and the Annacis Island Wastewater Treatment Plant Outfall Project as Project of the Year under C$300m, recognising major urban transit and deep outfall tunnelling works. The Canadian Innovation Initiative went to dynamic adaptative innovation on the Fairbank Silverthorn Tunnel Project, signalling growing interest in real‑time design and construction optimisation. Individual awards went to Young Tunneller Jonathan D Aubertin, Tunneller of the Year Curtis John Bahten, and Lifetime Achievement recipient Frank Huber.
Technical Brief
- Young Tunneller, Tunneller of the Year and Lifetime Achievement awards emphasise competency development and knowledge transfer.
Our Take
With Canadian Project of the Year split at the C$300m mark, these TAC awards effectively benchmark tunnelling and outfall work like the Annacis Island and Ashbridges Bay schemes against megaproject delivery standards rather than routine municipal upgrades.
Wastewater outfall and urban tunnel projects such as Fairbank Silverthorn sit in a small subset of our 161 Infrastructure stories where underground works are driven by resilience and environmental compliance rather than transport capacity, which typically changes the risk profile towards geotechnical and hydraulic performance over ridership or traffic metrics.
The focus on Canadian projects in 2025 aligns with a cluster of recent Infrastructure coverage where complex urban tunnelling in Canada is being used as a proving ground for adaptive construction methods that can later be transferred to higher-risk mining and hydropower caverns.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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